YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Two women who fled their homes because of domestic violence say they want courts in Japan to prevent their husbands from receiving family stimulus checks.
The stimulus checks, designed to boost the economy, are to be sent to the registered head of a household, the Kyodo news agency reported Monday.
The women, one in Yokohama and one in Kawasaki, said they could not update their residency information and register as heads of their households ... [full story]

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israel's "Operation Cast Lead" military actions in Gaza triggered a sharp increase in worldwide anti-Semitic incidents, an Israeli analysis reported Monday.
In a survey of global anti-Semitism in 2008 and 2009 conducted by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University, the European Jewish Congress found that a wave of 1,000 anti-Semitic incidents swept the world in January as the Israeli military battled ... [full story]

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica -- The standoff between a man who seized a Canadian charter flight in Jamaica and authorities ended Monday with the capture of the hijacker, police said.
The gunman, described by authorities as "mentally challenged," seized the Boeing 737 Sunday at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, robbed passengers, held several crew members hostage and demanded he be taken to Cuba, CNN reported.
CanJet Airlines Flight 918 originated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was on ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland to protest the Swiss president's meeting with the Iranian leader the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In a statement issued Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said ambassador Ilan Elgar would be recalled to Jerusalem as soon as possible for consultation, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Among other things, the statement cited Switzerland's hosting of a "racist and Holocaust denier who openly declares his intentions ... [full story]

SRINAGAR, India -- Gunbattles killed at least eight people in Indian-administered Kashmir in a violent run-up to the latest round of general elections, officials said Monday.
The victims of the weekend clashes included two security officers and a militant in the southern Doda district, Pakistan's English-language newspaper Dawn reported. A Muslim woman injured in the cross-fire later reportedly died in a hospital.
Separate gunbattles in the Kupwara and Baramulla districts resulted in the deaths of two militants ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Airstrikes in a border region of western Pakistan killed between 16 and 20 Taliban fighters, but their commander escaped, officials said.
A Taliban spokesman told CNN the Sunday airstrikes in the Orukzai Agency killed 16 fighters and Pakistani army officers put the toll at 20.
There was no immediate report on the identify of the attacking planes.
The target of the attack, Taliban commander Mulvi Hakimullah Mehsud, escaped unharmed, Pakistani army spokesman Qari Muhammad ... [full story]

BELEDWEYN, Somalia -- Infighting among Islamic insurgents in central Somalia has left at least three people dead and seven others wounded, witnesses say.
The fighting broke out Monday in the Hiran region's Beledweyn town, observers told Shabelle radio. Traffic, business and the movement of civilians was reportedly brought to standstill by the fighting, which included the use of heavy weapons.
It wasn't immediately clear what started the clashes and no comment had come Monday from the warring ... [full story]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Four of the founders of the Swedish Pirate Bay file-sharing Web site have been sentenced to a year in jail for violating copyright laws.
Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty after a trial, sentenced to jail and ordered to pay $3.6 million in damages, the BBC reported.
Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures had been seeking $13 million in damages.
John Kennedy, ... [full story]

YORK, England -- English police said Friday a body discovered in York may be that of a 35-year-old chef who went missing in the area a month ago.
North Yorkshire Police said while the body's identity has yet to be determined, it was located in the same city where University of York chef Claudia Lawrence was last seen on March 18, The Times of London said.
Thursday's discovery of the body in the River Ouse comes a ... [full story]

WARSAW, Poland -- Polish police said they have arrested seven people and seized about 500,000 marijuana plants in a raid of hidden plantations in northwestern Poland.
An anti-narcotics police team arrested two people and confiscated 800 marijuana plants when they uncovered a specially equipped underground marijuana plantation in a village near Szczecin, the Polish news.pl Web site said Friday.
This was the fourth closure of a marijuana plantation in the Szczecin region this year, police said.
The plantation ... [full story]

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkish police detained more than 40 people in four provinces early Friday over alleged links to a Kurdish terror organization, authorities said.
As police extended their search in Istanbul and other areas for Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, suspects, a provincial chairman of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, was arrested after condemning the investigation, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The private Dogan News Agency said 21 people were held in operations carried ... [full story]

VOLGOGRAD, Russia -- The statue "The Motherland Calls!" in Volgograd, Russia, needs reconstructive surgery, government specialists said Friday.
The concrete statue in the southern Russian city formerly known as Stalingrad is in danger of crumbling if repairs aren't made, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The statue of a sword-wielding Russian woman is 279 feet high and commemorates the 200-day battle of Stalingrad during World War II. When it was dedicated in 1967, it was the ... [full story]

BANGKOK -- The leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy in Thailand was injured but survived an assassination attempt as he was driving to work Friday, police said.
At least three gunmen armed with M-16 and an AK-47 assault weapons fired at the car carrying Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the anti-Thaksin Shinawatra movement that toppled Thakskin in 2006, TNA reported.
Sondhi underwent surgery to remove a bullet from his head, hospital officials said. Also injured were ... [full story]